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[Game who has become a dream] Chrono Trigger

Summer is truly a wonderful time during which everything is perceived differently;Perhaps I do not touch this game in the summer of 2017, I would not feel, by virtue of my melancholy, the whole range of genuine emotions that she gave me. This is joy, and surprise, and even sadness. And perhaps if I were so violent, I would let a tear, but-oo … “What is so special about it?”, – the reader will ask, surprised at the excessive emotionality of the first lines. Well, not all at once, sit down, and now I will try to tell about “Chrono Trigger”-a game that has become something more than just a game, something that can be involved in himself, and when he has already released, you regret that everything has already ended, and a big once adventure will become ordinary, but so pleasant we remember that the second summer is returning to me for the second summer.

“Dream team”

Development of the game and reception of the public

So that you understand, a “dream team” is a union of three people revered and known both in the game industry and beyond: Yuji Khoria, Akira Toriyama And Hironobo Sakaguti. They directly advised the developers, cut off and accepted new ideas, and also engaged in the design and study of the characters of the characters and the in -game world.

Yuji Khoria – Screenwriter and designer, thanks to whom the Dragon Quest series, whose last game, “Dragon Quest XI” was born, was released recently: in 2017 for Japanese consumers and in 2018 – for the Western market. Yuji himself can be called a storyteller of video game space, since most of his stories of the Dragon Quest series have always been filled with some naive charm and charm. It is also interesting that they have never been too gloomy and depressed. The stylistics of his characters and opponents looks specific: angular, clasp -eyed and rather nice;Such stylistics may seem stupid, but I always considered her funny.

Speaking of stylistics, it is worth mentioning a person who gave appearance to the characters of the game.
Akira Toriyama – known thanks to his series “Dragon Ball”, Japanese Mangaka also had a hand in the Dragon Quest Games series. His style is characterized by the angularity of the heroes, since the eyes are as large as possible and are most often not far from each other, which is why they look rather funny. But at the same time, Toriyama copes with the design of opponents, creating memorable and unusual monsters. That will play a considerable role in the development of Chrono Trigger.

Hironobo Sakaguti – Game designer and producer, in the company Square I got it by chance, because I wanted to earn extra money for the Pirate Apple II pirate, and indeed I wanted to become a musician. But fate turned out differently, and Sakaguchi became one of the founders of the series “Final Fantasy”. In the future, he was a producer and took a direct part in the development of the Games “Final”.

The developers faced a difficult question of what the game should be;This was already a completely new project that requires a lot of resources and attention. Immediately after the release of the games “Hanjuku Hero” and “Final Fantasy V”, the developers set to create the game, at the same time developing “Final Fantasy VI”. At first, the game was intended for carriers of CD-ROM systems, but after a while the developers switched to Super Famicom (SNES), making the game an exclusive for this platform. This was due to the fact that the development could drag out to infinity, from which such a decision was made.

In total, about 50 people worked in the team;As the developers themselves said, it was the largest development at that time, since most often about 20-30 people worked on projects. This created its difficulties, it was difficult to manage such a large unit, and for some this was the first development in their life, which is why the creation of the game became a challenge.

This was the first 32 Mbit game in the company, which, according to the developers, was equal to the four Games of the sixth finalka.

This is what Hironobu Sakaguti says about this:

Our initial plans provided for the game on 24 Mbit. But, being a RPG game about time travel, we really wanted to show a different appearance for all NPCs in different periods of time, and we wanted to change the appearance of the cities … Many similar details continued to appear as they develop. Designers spent a lot of time, carefully detailing all the springs, up to individual interior items, such as a watch or chest of drawers. When I saw the volume of what we created, then I realized that we need to go from 24 to 32 Megam.

It is worth noting that Sakaguti, in his words, was as strict as possible during the development. Every day he gathered all the employees so that they voiced him a report on how work on the game was moving and what they were going to do next. Sakaguti also united together the ideas of the developers and held consultations. On this occasion, the developers joked that when he was not in the workplace, the new ideas were already subconsciously considered the wrong.

32 MBIT was quite a lot, and there were 8 more Mbit in the remainder. It is thanks to this additional 8 “megas” that Katsen with the Magus Castle looks very impressive, and is one of the most memorable scenes in the game. Since the castle itself uses separate its own sprites, it took up a lot of space, but at the same time the developers still had enough memory to accommodate the introductory screensaver, which consisted of the brightest scenes in the game itself.

If we compare the “FFVI” and “Chrono Trigger” graphics, which were released with a margin of one year on the same platform, you can notice that even in the appearance of the characters there is an advantage in terms of graphics towards “chrono”. Since even the characters are painted in full growth, and are not chibiks with huge heads painted in connection with memory saving.

It is also interesting that the developers used Next-Gen CG Tools to create a graphic component. At the same time, adopting the experience from the movie “Terminator 2″. Initially, the developers tested the technology only for imposing textures at three -dimensional facilities, but at Chrono Trigger they first used textures to add three -dimensionality to real objects in the game. CG added so as not to conflict with two -dimensional objects in the game itself.

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And then there was an announcement of the game itself, which was called the Khoria Sakaguti project, because of their close friendship. During the announcement of the production of the game, the arts painted by Toriyama were shown, the first shots of gameplay and ready -made opponents, who were not eliminated after the announcement, but calmly migrated to the final version of the game. But this cannot be said about all content, in the video itself you can see the map of the world, which was very processed at the exit of the game. The developers compared such changes in the game with cutting excess leaves on a tree so that the wind could penetrate the rest.

Speaking of the changed content, it is worth recalling the first concept art of the characters of the game, which were painted by the screenwriter Masato Kato:

Honestly, it is difficult to imagine that already familiar characters could look like this. The character “Frog” was generally in the originally man-monster and, in truth, I did not immediately find him on the first art, here he is between a girl with glasses and a princess with huge strawberries on her head. But Akira quickly took the matter into his own hands, and thanks to his concepts, the developers were able to be inspired and understand how exactly the game should look like a visual plan. What can be added about the characters themselves is that that grandfather in the right corner on the first art was completely cleaned in the early stages of development. Although the rumor about the eighth character was still interested in fans for a long time.

Well, what about music? For musical accompaniment was responsible Yasunori Mitsuda – Japanese composer who created musical accompaniment for games such as Xenoblade, Xenogears, Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht and suddenly for Mario Party, games for Nintendo 64. As it turned out, Chrono Trigger was the first major project for Mitsuda, in which he independently composed music. Before that, he had to work with other people’s compositions, which is why he even wanted to leave the company. But starting to create musical accompaniment in Chrono, he began to work hard to the fullest, several times rewriting and remaking the already finished compositions. But thanks to the large amount of memory allocated for the game, it was easier for him to transfer most of the plan to be transferred to the game, not limiting himself to production.

This is what he said about this:

I think the same can be said about music. Comparison of sound effects with the battles and movements of each character was very important for us. Thanks to an increased memory size of 32 mbit, I was able to create 68 songs, and I really made a lot of effort to compare them with each scene. Since the Chrono Trigger theme was “Namida” (tears), I also turned on a lot of sad compositions.

But not everything was so smooth, and health problems forced the composer to go to the hospital. Fortunately, his colleague coped with the remaining compositions, Nobuo Wematsu who not only completed his work, but was also able to supplement the compositions so that even Mitsuda himself, hearing them, could not restrain emotions.

Musical accompaniment was widely recognized and is considered the best video game Saudtrek from ever created. So several albums were released:

Chrono Trigger Original Sound Version 1995
Chrono Trigger Arranged Version: The Brink of Time 1995 reprinted in 2004
Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack 1999 reprinted in 2005
Chrono Trigger Orchestra Extra Soundtrack 2015 to the twenty years of the game

You can also recall a huge number of remixes and concerts using compositions from the original game. For example, concerts such as Play! A Video Game Symphony in 2006 ”or“ Video Games Live ”.

Frankly, I can’t say that the soundtracks from the game are what causes me goosebumps. But when I listen to these compositions, I understand that they drag me out. This is something unusual, something that cannot be described in words;In general, it is difficult to objectively describe the music, without having the proper education, but to convey the range of emotions received from it, as well as possible. And, probably, my words do not cost anything, but I can say with confidence that the music of this game is a mixture of something fabulous, inspiring and at the same time sad and unusual.

And then, two and a half years later, “Chrono Trigger” appears on the shelves of Japanese video game stores, creating a real boom in the Japanese market. As of March 2003, it was calculated that about two million three hundred and sixty thousand copies were sold in Japan, including the version for the PlayStation, which later came out. In the West, the numbers were more modest, about 290 thousand, including the same version for Sony. Game journalists did not skimp on commendable reviews and high marks.

So, according to the magazine Nintendo Power, The main disadvantage is that the players after this game will be divorced for any other Jrpg genre game. In the magazine Super Play A whole section was dedicated where the player introduced the basics of the game, they gave advice and tips that were supposed to facilitate the search for ways in passing. At the same time, the game itself was compared with the “Legend of Zelda” and “The Secret of Mana”, the latter left under the wing Square. And as the developers themselves admitted, none of the 50 people worked on the game “Secret of Mana”.

And finally, I want to say about the version for PlayStation 1 and Nintendo DS. They did not change graphically in any way, but that in the first, that in the second, animated cats appeared. The version for DS generally acquired a bunch of additional materials, among which there is a bestiary with all the opponents they met, additional art and so on. There is also a Steam version of the game, released in 2018, but it had serious problems with the interface that migrated from the mobile version, and a graphic filter that did not turn off the menu. Over time, some things were fixed, but the sediment from such a careless attitude remained.

“Great journey”

Plot, setting and characters

So, the morning, the sun with its affectionate rays illuminates the tops of the roofs, over the fair of the millennia, lights of fireworks explode. But our main character, chrono, is not before, he is still lying in his bed and is not going to get up. The caring mother wakes him up, opening the curtains of the window. Bright sunlight illuminates the room, and now chrono rises out of bed, kneads and a bullet runs to the “Fair of the Millennium”, since his friend Lucca was waiting there. From that moment on, he does not even suspect what trouble he will bring him, and what will happen to him Such, that he could not even imagine in the nightmare.

Fair, everyone is noisy, here local athletes arranged distillations. And in this turmoil, Chrono accidentally encounters a forehead with a girl named Marle. During the clash, she dropped her necklace, but Chrono quickly reacted and, raising the jewel, quickly brought a puzzled girl. To which she decided to show him the fair in gratitude. And so they came together to the teleport, which was put on the show with Lucca. There were practically no people who wanted to test the car, and the first to agree to become a volunteer was chrono. Teleporting was successful, and Marle also wanted to try the car, but-oh … as it often happens, something went wrong, and the girl was brought into the opened portal, which took her away as much as 400 years ago, in the Middle Ages, in the Middle Ages. And here the story begins to develop rapidly, the locations change one after another, some very unexpected if you go through the game for the first time. So, having got out of the second centuries, in which the war of people against the mystics, Lucca, Marle and Chrono is in a retrofuturistic post -apocalypse, filled with mutants, robots and other post -apocalyptic elements like destroyed cities, people living in shelters and suddenly, empty -handed. Such a change of scenery looks interesting, and what is even more interesting is the reason for such a cataclysm. For the disaster was caused by the awakening of an unknown creature, which simply crawled out of the ground and arranged hellb.

An interesting fact: the https://stonevegas.uk/ game has a scene where the protagonist is sent to the court, the sentence in which the jury is sentenced. At the same time, in Japan until 2009 there were no courts with jurors. American films inspired the developers to this scene, and according to them they wanted to convey the atmosphere of excitement, built in words.

The narrative begins very ordinary, but then smoothly develops into something really unusual and interesting. For example, the characters move to 65,000,000 BC, where the heroes have to fight dinosaurs and reasonable reptilians who are fighting people for the right of dominance on earth. There is an ancient civilization that enjoys advanced technologies and magic. And in general, each period is endowed own atmosphere and entourage.

In fact, the plot of the game is such a fairy -tale Advenchura, where the heroes travel in time, simultaneously meeting both friends and enemies. This reminded me of the animated series “Conan-a boy from the future”-where the main character also, because of the girl, goes on a trip, creating his own team, which then the antagonists are then included even yesterday. There is similar here: with all the presence of frankly evil heroes, which is natural for our lives, there is one who is forced to be evil, but this does not prevent him from joining the team of the main characters.

At the same time, the plot itself is not devoid of intricacies, and each character and actions of each character of the character have its own, by no means a superficial meaning. Where is there, even the main evil, because of which the cataclysm of the future began, is alien to such concepts as good and evil. Do not forget that the game also has a sudden turn in the form of death of a non -last character of this game.

For the elaboration of characters, as well as work with the plot, Eugi Khoria was responsible, who spent a lot of time on dialogues for each character, filling history and peace. Since there were fewer the main characters than the games of the “finals”, they decided to focus considerable attention on their dialogs and characters, endowing each their own personality. Here is a good example, if you go on a mission to return the red stone at the reptiloids, and take Marle or Robo, you can see how different characters react to the same situation in different ways. So, if the primitive warrior girl Ail will scold her husband for going to the lair of reptiles alone, Robo in an intelligent manner will try to cool the girl:

“Ayla, please try to do without violence”.

Marle, on the contrary, will be panicked and shouting the first thing that comes to her mind in a similar situation:

Khoria wanted to add more dialogs for characters, but the developers persuaded him not to oversaturate the heroes. However, I can say from myself that the characters are full of order, they are interesting, memorable, and most importantly pleasant. So let’s talk about them:

Chrono – An ordinary guy living with his mother in a small house in the Kingdom of Gardia. It is athletically built, good in fencing. Outwardly, Chrono is similar to many other characters of the Senrand genre, where the main characters are young guys who have great potential and strength, unnecessary in nature, with pointed hairstyles. Chrono is a silent protagonist, the leaders of the procta Sakaguti and Kazuhiko Aoki had many disputes about whether to be silent or not. This is what Cazuhiko Aoki says about this:

Due to bad deeds, players can hate the protagonist. That is why the speakers of the main characters in most role -playing games mostly had soft, harmless dialogs. From this point of view, I think there is a certain advantage in the fact that the main character does not say at all.

Also, no matter how trite it sounds, the character is silent for the player it is easier to associate with him.

Marle – Princess Nadia, dear girl, with a rather curious and too emotional character. At home, in the castle, she does not sit and constantly wants to walk somewhere, looking for adventures to the fifth point. In some places it can behave a little crusty, but it mainly leaves only positive impressions. It is also a love interest to the protagonist, which is why, when he has a “small” problem that requires cardinal solutions, Marle throws everything to return his beloved. If you think about it, Marle is not just a female character that is needed in order to be a love interest. Thanks to her negligence and the fact that she crashed into chrono, perhaps no one would save the world.

Speaking about her name, Nadia is a common name in the Slavic languages, meaning “hope”, this is why everyone knows, but in Arabic it means “virtuous” and “tender”. Her adventure outfit also resembles Arab clothes. In ancient English, “Marle” means “pleasant forest”. This may be due to her place of residence, the castle that is behind the forest.

Lucca -Girl-inventor, best friend of the protagonist. It has high intelligence, a quiet and soft nature, although if you angry it, it can also stir up well. Due to the accident that happened to her mother, which is why she became a disabled person, has a depressive disorder and very quickly falls into despondency. Although most often hides such emotions, even in front of friends.

Lucca is a city in the north-west of Italy, located west of Florence. On the site of the ancient Ligurian settlement and the Roman colony, it became a free commune, and in the 12th century it became an independent republic. Today it is one of the most conservative and rich cities of Italy.

Lucca is also the root of many words focused on light. This is most likely a reference to her bright personality. In addition, the name of Lucca can be an adaptation of Lucia, which was called the Catholic saint – the “healer of the blind”. Perhaps this is due to Stem that in the future Lucca will save her mother from disability and make a shelter for homeless children from his house.

In the very first concept arts, Lucca wore a bow and had disheveled hair, while she had to represent a crazy scientist who rushed from extreme to extremes.

Robo -Such an “iron lumberjack” from the future also wants to become closer to people emotionally, which is why he received from his counterparts, who accused him of defectiveness. Robo is a funny character talking as an erudite person, he also sometimes does not skimp on emotions, although he is a robot. He became well friends with Lucca, which is why she will even make his reduced copy. And he is also a hardworking guy, and thanks to his efforts, Forest Forest will be born. Who decided to grow the girl Fiona and her husband Marco, since the old forest was burned by mystics during the war in the Middle Ages.

Although Robo does not remember his real name, in fact his name is Prometheus. His challenge and the fight against the “maternal computer” are a reference to the myth of Prometheus, the ancient Greek titanium, which challenged the gods and abducted the fire in order to help mortal people.

Interestingly, in the Japanese version, Robo speaks with an admixture of the katakana (these are the words of non -amatean origin), while his blue counterparts are fully said on the katakan.

Frog – True gentleman and knight in white armor. He became so not from a good life, but after meeting with Magus and Ozzi who killed his friend Sirius, and he was turned into a frog. But that they certainly could not kill in him was perseverance and valor. Glenn, and so his name was before transformation, was a squire of his friend and did not claim to be a strong warrior in any way. But the established circumstances forced to act differently, and there was no choice for the transformed Glenn, how to pick up a weapon and go to fight the mystics. In general, Frog is a rather depressed and sad person, he does not believe in his own strength, and when they abduct Princess Lina, blames himself for himself and goes into his underground hut, where Handra takes possession.

Frog is a highly well -read personality, and, unlike the rest, communicates in Shakespeare’s language, using words such as “Thou”, “Thee” and “Shalt Thou”, which are translated as “you”, “you” and “you”, but already in a more literary manner. Alas, in the version for DS, he lost this feature and spoke like everything.

Eila – a real warrior, a master of unscrewing the heads of the dinosaurs and just a devoted friend. Respects both male and female power, which is why he quickly and unconditionally accepts the main characters after they repelled the attack of reptilians. It itself is quite curious, although in view of her age, a cave person is deprived of high intelligence, but at the same time has a savvy that helps it get out of various situations. It has a cinema groom who, with her strengths, send her, and rather insulting and jealous. Why does she like to educate him with the methods understandable to her.

In its original form, according to the plan of Akira, she should have straight hair. But the developers wanted to give her a more wild, disheveled look, from which they changed her hairstyle, adding blond -lumpy lush hair.

Magus – The real name Janus, the leader of the Army of the mystics, has a serious magic and holds at hand to personal signs, Ozzi, Fleya and Slisha. Cynical, unemotional and simply cruel commander who decided to go to everything in order to carry out long -standing revenge.

In childhood, Magus was a cute, but even then manifesting cruelty by the boy. Of all his friends, he only had a sister and his faithful cat. He received such a nature of a closed and evil man from his mother, Queen Zil. But he was very kind to his sister, and in general the whole mess arranged by him was only so that he could return it. The player is free to take Magus to his team, or maybe kill him, which will undoubtedly lead to certain consequences.

It is interesting that during the battle, it is equal to 6666, which, as it were, hints at the number of the beast. The name Magus, which in Japanese sounds like a Mao, translates as a “devil” or “king of demons”. In the version for DS it is called not by name, but “Lord of the Demons”.

Shala – Sister Magnus, an unhappy and timid girl with an overly kind character. While the mother and Janus wanted to subjugate the time with Janus, she took care of her brother, trying to grow him a good and kind citizen. Perhaps, if not for sure, Shala is the most tortured character in the whole game, moreover, her sad fate will become known only in continuation of “Chrono Cross”.

Initially, the heroine was called Sarah – this is a Jewish name, which means “noble princess”, “lady”, “noble woman”. It was also the name of the wife of Abraham – the first biblical patrician who lived after the Great Flood.

Fleya – One of the main signs of Magnus. Why in a male gender? Yes, because this is a man, by whom you can’t say that it is so. Since neither the thighs wide in relation to the shoulders, nor a deep neckline with the obvious presence of a second size of mammary glands, you know, they do not say that it can be a disguised man.

Character is a malicious, harmful and narcissistic creature that constantly presses on its exclusivity and “unreal” beauty. During the battle, poisoning and disorientation is constantly cast, also during the fight changes space using visual illusions.

Gaspar – One of the three guru that was scattered in time. He was least lucky, because he was absolutely empty of the place where there was nothing and nobody. But he was not at a loss and was able to somehow curb the portals and built the location “End of time”, moreover, he learned to create his own portals and found a way to prevent the death of other people.

Gaspar is a very interesting and wise uncle who helps and instructs the main characters in every possible way, telling them how best to do and at what time period they will go. Sometimes I got the impression that Gaspar controlled everything from the very beginning. Moreover, I think that behind this, it looks like an ordinary old man hides a much more mysterious person who is not so easy to reveal.

Queen ZIL – Mother of Magus and Sheila, an evil and arrogant woman who creates a mamon car to control Lavos forces. She looks at people living from below as worms, considering herself and her servants the highest degree of development of reasonable life. But according to Melchior, one of the three sages, it was not always like that and only under the influence of Lavos’s alien organism was absorbed by insanity and evil absorbed it.

A huge bolt puts on his children, and uses her own daughter as a resource raw material that should help her curb the power of Lavos. But this turns into a disaster, her daughter disappears, and her son is transported in the Middle Ages, where he becomes the leader of terrible mystics.

Lavos -an alien organism that has long arrived to the ground. It is huge, dangerous, and the strangest thing that, being evil, you can’t call it evil. No, no, do not think that this is a gray character or a character who for good intentions creates evil. No … Lavos is a creature out of understanding the human mind. Similar creatures appeared in Lovecraft’s books, when people who opposed them were not more for them than an obstacle, a primitive reasonable life or an object for studying. Also here, Lavos overcame millions of light years and flew to the ground just to evolve. That is, such concepts as love, power, self -interest, friendship, even, can be said, life and death – all this for him does not matter, even when Queen Zil allegedly took possession of him, in fact, she simply seized a semi -ton creature, which then attacked the heroes only because it was protected only because it was protected. They were just annoying insects that posed for him a threat.

When he again declared himself in 1999, he turned the land to the ashes with his usual awakening. This is so strong, incomprehensible and alien to all earthly creature that I am surprised how the heroes could act against him at all. Its evolution is a response to the evolution of the life of the earth, and the final form into which it will turn is not given to any description, since this is perhaps the strongest, and surpassing a person by thousands of times with his Code of thinking.
Perhaps even the world in which the characters live is a business of the hands of Lavos, which was corny sown with life once a deserted planet. This is hinted at the fact that Lavos has already sowed its caviar, which managed to develop and turn into its small copies.

Interesting fact: Lavos is a reference to the mythical beast Peluda -“La Velue”, he is also a shaggy beast that terrorized in medieval times of La Ferteus-Bernard-this is in France. According to the myth, this creature was not allowed on Noah’s ark, but he managed to survive the biblical flood. After which the creature harmed in every possible way, attacking settlements. From the personal characteristics of the monster, you can recall fiery breath, the ability to cause flooding and shooting with sharp spikes. His only weak place was the tail, this part of the body and became its “Achilles Fifth”, when, after he erected the bride of one person, he aptly compartment a miraculous tail. Sending straight to hell.

The shaggy beast was varnish to innocent creatures and devoured girls and children. Usually he chose the most chaste from the girls, which was the case of Yelica (l’GNELLE). And then one day he abducted such an Yelitsa and dragged her, tormented and bloodied, in his lair. The girlfriend of the girl tracked the monster and pierced his tail, his only vulnerable place with a sword with a sword. The beast instantly died. They made a scarecrow from it, and his death was celebrated with flutes, drums and funny dances.‌‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌‌ ‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌ ‌‌‌‌

The shaggy beast from La Ferteus-Bernard (1: C.42)

As I wrote earlier, the heroes are free to travel in various eras, whether it is a post-apocalypse or a stone age. And what else is interesting in such worlds is that they do not conflict among themselves. Some of the conservatives will say: “Well, how is it, well, why here is magic and technology, why science fiction, along with magic and mythical creatures?”
Why not. Is it necessary to stomp only in one place and do everything according to the so -called canon, and what if John Tolkien took not the Middle Ages for his setting, but, for example, the seventeenth or eighteenth century, and Sauron’s troops would not run with bows and swords, but shot from muskets and used guns? Why the world cannot develop using magic and other things? Eh ..

The modernity in which Chrono lives is represented in a civilized way: he has a refrigerator, radio and a gas oven at home. It can also be said that in the country where Chrono lives, there is a monarchical form of government, there is also robot construction and, in general, technological progress does not stand still and technology is being implemented in the life of people. The future, in which the cities are presented in the form of huge domes, have its own highways and even artificial intelligence, which, according to all laws of the genre, is presented from under control and longs for people’s deaths, looks especially interesting.

In prehistoric times, on the contrary, the settlements of people are huts made of stretched skins of wild animals, while their biological opponents, reptiloids, have their own castle, and indeed they are more developed than people they call “monkeys”. What is ironic, but these advanced lizards will be comprehended by a sad fate, since Lavos will fly on their heads, making a huge crater at the place where the castle of their queen was once there.

There is an era of the Middle Ages, the time when people fought with facial expressions are mystical creatures that are aggressive to people. But not all, in the time of Chrono there are mysticisms who are friendly to people, calling long -time enmity a relic of the past.

Antique times are presented in the form of a civilized race of magicians and thinkers living on soaring islands, but ordinary people live on an earth covered with a huge layer of snow caused by the ice age. Mages do not spare people using them to carry out hard work, as well as for experimentation. Separately, I would like to mention the Palace of Queen Zil, which is a rather atmospheric and pleasant place where, next to large book shelves, there are sleeping places in which magicians rest.

And finally, the “end of time”, the place in which the main owner receiving guests is Gaspar. This is a tube and quiet place where, under the warm consecration of a lantern, you can relax and save the game.

Khoria, along with Sakaguchi, spent a lot of time on the filling and elaboration of these worlds so that they do not look the same – this is both the appearance of locations and opponents, which are found only in a certain era.

Well, having summed up all the above, I want to talk about the endings of the game. Which are as many as 13 pieces (there are 14 in the version for DS), including both bad, and good, tragic and even comic with a good -natured Easter from the game developers. The endings give the player the opportunity to choose how exactly he should pass the game, and, most importantly, this allows you to get his personal game experience, which may differ from others.

“Sile your blades”

Gameplay

Well, now let’s move on to the gameplay. At first, the player is introduced to the ATL system.
Active Time Event Logic – This is when the player can calmly move in space, while others talk to him, secondary NPC. According to the developers, this system was supposed to be supported during a conversation with the bosses, when the player could move along the location, not paying attention to the boss dialogue, because of which he could start a battle ahead of time, since no one listened to him. Alas, this feature of the bosses did not reach the final version. But even the fact that the player could calmly move in space during a conversation with other NPCs already looked like an innovation.

It is also worth mentioning that, unlike the “finishing” or “dragon quest”, there are no random battles on the world of world in the “Chrono Trigger”. That is, when the player goes quietly and enemies, with whom you need to fight, jump out from nowhere. Basically, all clashes occur at levels, and sometimes random clashes with enemies occur there. But, as the developers themselves said, this is because opponents ambushed the heroes. Indeed, the appearance of enemies comes from the bushes, they also jumps off the protrusions, and in general everything looks like a sudden repavna, but a thoughtful ambush for the player. Anyway, most battles can easily be skipped, since the enemies simply patroll the places they allotted at the level, which is why the player can simply slip between them, without losing excess time and effort.

Speaking about the opponents themselves, the game is simply stunning: 246 types of enemies, including bosses and minibosses. And what is characteristic, everyone with their own approach to destruction and abilities, and even those that are supposedly repeated in appearance are considered close relatives of the enemies already familiar, but have completely different abilities and weaknesses. This is interesting, since the player does not just plug cannon meat, but develops various ways to kill him. That is, if one opponent is weak to magic, then the second after receiving magical damage can make up for his life. Enemies can cooperate and help each other, conduct common attacks or treat each other. Here, for example, look at this image:

I have three characters: Lucca, Marle and Chrono. Two vultures and one goblin with a hammer are opposed to me. So, the vultures apply attacks quickly and painfully, but at the same time they have a long turn to attack, the goblin attacks immediately after the first move of the player. So, I use Lucca, which fires goblin with fire, he drops his hammer – the main protection that reduces the resulting damage. Then Marle shoots from his crossbow and the goblin dies. At the same time, chrono applies a superior for the vulture, and while the other is only going to attack, Lucca again takes his move and shoots the remaining enemy. Profit;/ (well, at least I had it)

As it has already become clear, in the game step -by -time fights in real time, that is, it is not when the characters just stand and wait for their turn, like their opponents, and when everyone moves through the location and attack ahead of the lead, since anyone can suddenly take away from their opponent. Everyone has its own course when it is filled, the player can choose what to do: apply the attack with ordinary weapons, choose superpowers or use the existing item. Each character is filled with a certain speed depending on the level, but the main character always walks the first because of the existing advantage. But what about the heroes themselves, what abilities and weapons they use?

Chrono – owns the element “Lightning”, its main weapon is Katana, with proper pumping, it beats a shock wave, and it is also able to combine his attacks with other characters.

Marle – The element “Water” can heal its allies aura, the main weapon is a crossbow.

Lucca – Element of “Fire”, can be rushed with attack grenades and combine the magic of fire. Owns firearms, like laser pistols, as well as a combat hammer.

Frog – The element “water” also knows how to heal the allies and attacks with mucus. With proper pumping, it can throw a huge frog on the enemy’s head, the main weapon is a sword.

Robo – does not own magic, but knows how to produce rockets and attack a laser wave. Can heal the allies, and his main weapon is a fist.

Eila – does not own magic, but fights well in hand -to -hand, all the main attacks are associated with hand -to -hand combat.

Magus – The strongest character, owns everyone and at once. Attacks with its huge oblique, has an element “darkness”.

The characters know how to combine and pump their existing abilities, and learn new. They also know how to combine their superflyels. For example, if everyone has a low strip of health, and there is no time to spend money on healing tonics, and the enemy can attack at any time, chrono can unite with Marle and produce a wave of aura, which will restore a greater percentage of lost health from the whole team. Or, for example, chrono can unite with Robo to deliver a crushing blow to the enemy, which removes half or all his health.
This technique of interaction was invented by Eugi Khoria, calling it “Renkei“. At that time it was innovative, since there was no such interaction of the characters in any game that came out to the “chrono”.